Investigating Slum Dwellers Decisions to Invest in a Sanitation Service in Kampala (Uganda)

Abstract

The lack of adequate sanitation is a major threat for health and well-being of people, particularly for those living in urban slums in developing countries. Affordable solutions to the problem are available and new technologies in development but, still, will be relatively expensive. We investigated how slum dwellers in Kampala (Uganda) decide to rent a new sanitation service, in order to improve the design and promotion of the service. 1050 participants were randomly selected for personal interviews that covered a wide range of qualitative and quantitative questions. A logistic regression explains the decision to rent the service with psychological evaluations on 4 dimensions: (1) affective (liking the toilet), (2) instrumental (advantages for health), (3) normative (compliance with cultural norms, being proud or ashamed, and expected opposition or support), and (4) expected difficulties when using the toilet. All dimensions significantly (p < 0.01) affect the decision with the exception of affective liking (p = 0.846). To conclude, the promotion of the toilet should address advantages, difficulties, and normative aspects with arguments favouring systematic information processing.